Only responding to this one part because it jumped out to me:
But in the end we'll see as if they do do that type of cop out, and now set Discovery in some future era going forward, they'll have lost me as a viewer because I don't find the 'Utopian/TNG' era interesting at all - and I can only imagine how much more sanctimonious the Federation and Starfleet become in te 25th century and beyond.
The Federation in early-TNG and late-DS9 are very different from each other and that's just 10 years' difference, nevermind 800. Assuming the Federation is still around in the 33rd Century, it should be
nothing like what we've seen in TNG/DS9/VOY. It should bear no resemblance to what we're familiar with from the other series at all. Michelle Paradise can make it whatever she wants it to be.
If they even show the Federation or what descended from it. It might even be post-Fall of the Federation if that ever came to pass. Assuming they even show any of it at all.
To me, the characters in DSC are primary and the setting is secondary. I'm here more for Burnham, Saru, Tilly, Stamets, and the rest than I am for what century it's in.
And Craft seems pretty identifiably Human too. I'd even say he'd fit right in with the Disco Crew. I'm not saying we need to see him again but he definitely doesn't strike me as some Hyper-Evolved Latter-Day Roddenberrian. He's just a regular guy who runs into Discovery and builds a perfectly human rapport with Zora, before leaving. "Calypso" is the most human story
Discovery ever put out and it features a Human from the 33rd Century and an AI.